A Day in God's Courts is Better Than a Thousand Elsewhere----Day 196 Through the Bible

God is glorious as Creator as well as in His role of Heavenly Father!

Today's reading begins with another account of an evil king of Judah being defeated/delivered by God into the hands of his enemy.  The king is Ahaz.  Not only was he involved in idolatrous practices, he even burned his own children in the fire during worship of heathen gods (2 Chronicles 28:3). Judah's enemy at this time was Israel (not unlike America's Civil War, where brother fought against brother in a nation divided, north against south. The land of Israel was also divided north and south: Judah was The Southern Kingdom and Israel, The Northern Kingdom.)

God allowed Judah's defeat.  However, He reprimanded Israel's leaders (Ephraimites) by the prophet Oded, for killing them "in a rage that reaches up to heaven" (2 Chronicles 28:9), although He had delivered them into Israel's hand.  God also took issue with the fact that they were in the process of "forcing" Judah to be their slaves.  God warned them to return their captive brethren because His fierce wrath was upon them (verse 10).  Some of the leaders of Ephraim refused to have the captives brought to their territory by saying, "We already have offended the Lord. You intend to add to our our sins and to our guilt; for our guilt is great, and there is fierce wrath against Israel".  The rebuked captors took action to remedy the situation.  They clothed the captives who were naked and gave them sandals.  They gave them food and drink, and cared for their wounds.  They allowed the feeble to ride on donkeys.  They brought them to "Jericho, the city of palm trees", and returned to Samaria. They treated them as brothers and sisters, which they were.

There's no way to cover all that has spiritual significance in today's scriptures, but I will mention a few:
---Ahaz encouraged moral decay in Judah and "the Lord brought Judah low" because of this. He was "continually unfaithful to the Lord" (verse 19). (Entire countries can be put in jeopardy by an immoral, ungodly leader.)
---"In the time of his distress King Ahaz became increasingly unfaithful to the Lord" (verse 22).  (Our time of distress can either make us or break us--it depends on what we choose to do.)
---Ahaz switched to pagan gods because he thought they could help him win battles.
---Ahaz actually ransacked the temple and closed its doors.
---Ahaz was such an evil king he was not allowed into the tombs of the kings of Israel when he died (v. 27).
---Ahaz's son, Hezekiah reigned in his place; Hezekiah did what was right in the eyes of the Lord (2 Chronicles 29:2). We see the wisdom here of the law God gave Moses, that "nor shall the children be put to death for their fathers; but a person shall die for his own sin" (see 2 Chron. 25:4).
---Hezekiah restored the temple and "(carried) out the rubbish from the holy place" (2 Chron. 28:5-6). (It is a disgrace to a parent for their child/children to have to pick up the pieces of their parent's less than honorable lifestyle.)  The chapter ends with rejoicing as the worshipers of the true God realized that God had set everything in place, allowing the restoration of the temple to take place quickly. (God works behind the scenes in our lives, also.)

Ahaz did not understand the value and rewards of being faithful to God.  Proverbs 21:7, describes his fate: "The violence of the wicked will destroy them, because they refuse to do justice". In Psalm 84:10-12, the Psalmist condenses the value of our relationship with God into these words: "For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand.  I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness (remember, tents could be very elaborate in those days).  For the Lord God is a sun and shield; The Lord will give grace and glory. No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man who trusts in You!"